Game 94 · Tanzania & Zanzibar mancala

Bao

Master East Africa's deepest mancala with layered captures and long chains.

Choose your opponent

Ten opponents from Zanzibar's beaches to Stone Town's masters. Beat one to unlock the next - your progress is saved on this device.

How to play Bao

  1. Board: 32 pits split into two rows per side (your front row faces the opponent, your back row is behind it), each starting with 2 seeds - 16 pits and 32 seeds per side.
  2. Sow: tap one of your pits. Its seeds drop one at a time into each following pit around your own 16-pit loop only - front row left to right, then back row right to left, looping back to the front.
  3. Relay: if your last seed lands in one of your own pits that already had at least one seed in it, you immediately pick up everything now sitting there and keep sowing onward without ending your turn. Long relay chains that sweep across your whole side are normal and a hallmark of real Bao.
  4. Capture: your turn ends the instant your last seed lands in a pit that was empty before it landed. If that pit is in your front row, look directly across the board at the same column in the opponent's front row - if seeds are sitting there, you capture all of them and they're banked as your score.
  5. No capture: landing on an empty back-row pit, or an empty front-row pit with nothing opposite, simply ends your turn with no capture - no penalty.
  6. Win/lose: the game ends the moment either side has zero seeds anywhere on their own 16 pits. Whoever has captured more seeds overall wins; equal captures is a tie. A repeated board position with no further captures possible ends the game as a draw.

The campaign: 10 named opponents (Juma through Bwana Bao) form a difficulty ladder from a 1-ply beginner who blunders nearly half the time to a 4-ply grandmaster who never does. Each opponent has a short line of flavor text shown above the board, and the AI's own two rows are tinted with that opponent's personal accent color, so the ladder feels like ten different rivals rather than ten numbers. Beat the opponent at the front of the ladder to unlock the next one; your unlocked tiers and cleared stars are saved in this browser. Practice matches don't affect your progress.

Hint: the "💡 Hint" button (3 uses per match) runs the same minimax search the AI uses, resolving relay chains and all, 4 moves deep from your side, and highlights the pit it considers your strongest opening. It only ever suggests - it never sows for you.

Match recap: every game ends with a recap - total moves played, how many of your sows captured seeds, your biggest single capture, your longest relay chain (most pits swept in one continuous sowing turn), and the longest stretch either side went without a capture.

Game over